Wow, one out of ten, this is hard.

My kids love it here.

It doesn't really feel like a foreign country to us.

Thank you so much for your time.

And the first question, where are you from and how long have you been here?

I'm from Austria.

I was born and raised in Vienna and I've been living in Asia since 2015 and in Taiwan full-time since 20, since three years ago.

Yeah, three years ago.

How's your life so far?

My life is pretty good.

I feel very safe and yeah, it's a nice environment to be living in.

I'm very grateful.

Okay, what brought you to Taiwan in the first place?

Work.

I was working in Hong Kong before and I would fly around between Taiwan and Hong Kong and then I decided to come here and just in time because right after I came to Taiwan, the pandemic started.

So I was stuck here basically, but I'm also, I feel like it was a good place to be stuck in and I felt very, you know, taken care of and safe.

I see.

Can I know what do you do?

I'm in modeling.

Obviously, yeah.

I'm actually at work now.

This is my lunch break.

So I look a little...

Sorry to bother you.

No, it's my lunch break and yeah, very lucky to run into you guys.

Because you have been here for a couple years, right?

So how would you rate living in Taiwan?

So 1 out of 10.

What about a good thing and a bad thing?

Wow, 1 out of 10.

This is hard.

No, I just want you to be honest.

Yeah.

Sure.

I think 8.

I think there are a lot of things that are incredibly...

They're very comfortable about living in Taiwan.

It's very, I feel very safe.

The environment is very safe.

It's very green.

Taipei is very green and it's a beautiful place.

I really like, I think one of my favorite things is how people are very considerate and thoughtful.

It always seems like people are looking out for each other.

I never feel like people are taking advantage of the fact if they think that I'm a tourist.

I don't feel like people raise the prices for me like they do in many other countries.

People tend to be very humble and honest and straightforward.

And if you lose something...

Every day when I walk around, I see keys and wallets and people just pick them up and put them on the side.

So if you lose something, you come back a few hours later.

It's probably still there.

So I really...

Oh my god, I love that so much.

And the whole island is just very...

It's convenient to get anywhere.

There's a high-speed rail.

It's like one and a half hours to Kaohsiung.

And then you can go to the beach.

There's the mountains.

A lot of beautiful nature.

Hualien.

Tai Lu Ge National Park.

Kenting has a beautiful beach.

Like I said, Kaohsiung, it's a gorgeous place.

Xi Zi Wan, Qi Jin.

And then of course, you have the Nu Wang Tou.

The whole coast, the upper north coast, eastern coast.

I feel like there's a little bit of everything here.

The food is amazing.

It's very cheap.

Oh my god.

I feel like it's cheaper to eat out than to cook at home sometimes.

If you buy the ingredients, you might as well just go to a night market.

And you know, people are very sweet.

And it's a good experience all around.

So sounds good.

So what about the bad part?

Because it's still not perfect, right?

But I think there's nothing...

There's no perfect country.

I want to talk about a more specific bad part of Taiwan.

Or have you ever experienced a bad experience, something like that?

Yes, of course.

And you're completely right.

No country is actually perfect.

Everything has got its pros and cons.

I feel like sometimes in Taiwan, I feel a bit isolated from people.

I feel like it's very hard to get into groups.

Because they seem to have been established from very early on.

And people like to stay within their circles, it seems to me.

And also, a lot of people...

It's a very homogenous culture.

Usually, I feel like everywhere I go, people look at me like I'm the first foreigner they see.

Like even now in 2022.

You know, people look at me like,

Oh my god, look.

Why go there?

Oh my god.

And people don't seem to travel as much.

And be...

I mean, they're very open-minded.

They're very tolerant and welcoming.

Everywhere I go, welcome to Taiwan.

It's so cute.

I wish that people were...

They got more chances to travel as well.

And be more...

Just see more of the world, I feel like.

Maybe because Taiwan is also an island.

People tend to be more...

Kind of isolated from the rest of the world, in a sense.

So a lot of people I met have never really travelled before.

And the ones that do travel, they usually stay with the group, like 團.

And I feel like...

And where do they go?

Japan, right?

So in Japan, and Taiwanese culture, can be quite similar sometimes.

So people, when I meet them...

They seem to not have seen a lot of the world.

And sometimes they struggle with English as well.

So I wish that there could be more of a connection sometimes.

Maybe that's another reason I find it hard to break into circles here.

Or to amass a lot of friends.

Well, actually, that's a really good perspective.

You know, because as a Taiwanese,

I think I used to stay in the comfort zone.

You usually ask questions.

Do you speak Mandarin?

I do speak Mandarin.

Yeah, I'm actually half Taiwanese.

Oh, so you're half Taiwanese.

Yeah.

Can you tell?

Not sure.

So, do you speak Mandarin to the level of a native speaker?

I think it's okay.

I think my English is better.

So when I speak English, I tend to...

I'm quite curious.

So when you were young, did you live in Taiwan or in Australia?

Never.

So did you learn your Chinese from your family?

Yeah, I was born and raised in Vienna.

And I spoke Chinese with my mom in Vienna.

And my mom would speak Chinese with me at home.

But during the day, when it was snowing outside, my family in Australia would communicate with their friends in Australia.

We all spoke German.

So your mom is Taiwanese, and your dad is an Australian.

Yeah, my mom is from Kaohsiung, and my dad is an Australian.

Oh, that's special.

I think we can do another episode.

Thank you so much for your time.

Where are you from and how long have you been here?

I'm from Chicago in the U.S.

And I've been here four and a half years.

Four and a half?

Wow, that's quite long.

So what brought you to Taiwan in the first place?

I've lived a few other places before I moved here.

And I wanted something different.

And I lived in Asia before, then I moved to Europe.

And I want to come back to Asia.

So I felt like Taiwan was a good way to do that.

How would you rate living in Taiwan as your opinion?

I'll score 1 out of 10.

I think it depends on which qualities I'm judging.

I think overall, for me, I have a pretty easy and comfortable lifestyle.

Compared to living in the States,

I think I wouldn't be able to have the same lifestyle in the States as I do here.

And also, I like nature.

I like doing things outside.

And like I said, it's easy to do those things.

Just get on the bus, maybe an hour or so.

And you're at those locations.

So for comfort, being comfortable, I'd say eight and a half.

That's pretty high.

So what about a good thing and a bad thing?

Well, the obvious bad thing is that my Mandarin is not great.

So I feel like, but that's my own fault.

That's, you know, I live in Taiwan.

I could practice more.

But I think that does leave a little bit of a barrier because I should know more because that's the language of this country.

But I think the good part is with that,

I still have a challenge for myself to be able to learn and grow and to do something.

So even though I don't know much Mandarin,

I still have many Taiwanese friends who help me and introduce me to different things.

So I'm not completely lost.

So what is the current Mandarin level, do you think?

A baby.

Yeah, that's it.

That's it. Thank you so much.

Where are you from and how long have you been here?

So I'm from the USA.

I've been here since January of this year.

So almost 11 months.

And I'm from San Francisco, New York.

How's your life so far?

I love it in Taiwan.

It's a great place to live.

I've lived in China.

I've lived in US and I've lived in many cities.

And Taipei is just a very livable city.

And my kids love it here.

It doesn't really feel like a foreign country to us.

Well, how would you rate living in Taiwan?

And one out of 10.

So can you also tell about the good thing and bad thing?

Okay, so definitely a 10.

There are so many great things.

One is the level of English.

You can always find somebody who speaks English.

I happen to speak Mandarin.

So that makes it a little bit easier to get along.

But there's beautiful untouched nature, mountains to climb, a beautiful shoreline, hiking, biking.

It's very biking friendly with lots of nice trails.

You can actually go all the way around the island on a bike trail.

In addition, there's great shopping.

You can get the types of things that you are used to buying in your home country as far as clothes and apparel.

The food's amazing here.

A lot of like night markets where you can try the traditional Chinese, Taiwan foods.

It's easy to get around.

It's inexpensive.

I'm really trying to search for something bad in Taiwan.

I can't.

It is kind of hard to find some of the foods from your own country sometimes.

Like American food.

Yeah, so you just have to create it on your own.

I haven't been able to find blue cheese dressing, so I just make that at home.

Very few negatives that I can even think about.

Do you have anything you want to share to the audience or anyone they want to come to visit Taiwan?

Yeah, come visit.

It's a beautiful place.

Very friendly.

Very easy to get around, whether it's inexpensive taxis or the subways.

A really great public transport system.

If you have children, they have great summer school programs where you can just come and stay for the summer where your kids can learn Mandarin in the summer camps at the universities here.

Yeah, that's it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, sir.

Thank you.